Brendan Fraser Keeps Doing This

"Fraser had already been nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, but not everyone was convinced at the time that he would win; many considered Austin Butler the favorite for Elvis, while film critics were hoping for a Colin Farrell upset for The Banshees of Inisherin. As soon as Fraser took the stage, however, it was clear that the thing was his."

"I kept flashing back to that evening as I watched Japanese director Hikari's new film, Rental Family, in which Fraser plays a lonely, middle-age American actor living in Tokyo for whom the good parts have largely dried up. Phillip Vandarploeug (Fraser), we're told, went viral in Japan some years ago for a series of toothpaste commercials in which he played a goofy, toothbrush-riding superhero."

An onstage Q&A during awards season captured Brendan Fraser's enthusiastic reception and his reflections on early fame, later fallow periods, and the emotional flux of acting. Fraser achieved early stardom with Encino Man and The Mummy but experienced career lulls that deepened his empathy for jobbing actors facing repeated anticipation and disappointment. In Hikari's film Rental Family, Fraser plays Phillip Vandarploeug, a lonely, middle-aged American actor in Tokyo whose notable viral toothpaste commercials once brought fame. The character now faces rejections and humdrum roles until he is hired for 'specialized performances,' including posing as a 'sad American' at a staged funeral that becomes unexpectedly cathartic.

Read at Vulture